


Caffeine

by Mildredo



Category: Glee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:50:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mildredo/pseuds/Mildredo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finals are tough for Kurt...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caffeine

Nobody is themselves during finals week. Blaine knows this. It’s beyond stressful, with late nights and no sleep and way too much coffee. He just didn’t realize how much Kurt isn’t himself during finals. Last year, there were other people around the apartment – Santana, Rachel – to take the brunt of the crazy. This year, they’re living together, alone, and it has been wonderful. Until now.

Blaine’s finals were last week, and his coping method was the same as it always has been: study hard all year, study a little harder when finals get close, drink plenty of water, get a shower each day and eight hours of sleep every night. He’s done it that way as long as he can remember, follows all the sensible advice that no one ever follows, and aces his exams. Kurt’s coping method, however, apparently involves drinking six espressos in quick succession at 11pm, having the box of caffeine tablets prized from his hand at 11:30pm, and throwing Blaine out of the bedroom at midnight for breathing too loud.

How Kurt could possibly have heard him breathing over the Wicked soundtrack blaring out of his earphones at such a volume that Blaine could clearly hear every word ten feet away is beyond him.

The sofa is a secondhand one they got on Craigslist after moving into the apartment and immediately realizing they’d neglected to buy important pieces of furniture. Kurt made new cushion covers out of scraps of material he had, but the cushions themselves are still lumpy. The original cover is still over the main body of the sofa, because Kurt didn’t have the material or the time to make a new one, and the arms are covered in questionable stains that no amount of scrubbing has removed. Blaine winces as he pulls away the blanket that covers the worst arm and carefully unfolds it before arranging the throw pillows against the least stained arm and lying down. He can hear Kurt in the bedroom, shouting in frustration every few minutes. It’s louder than he thinks it is, because of the volume of the music in his ears, and definitely louder than anyone should be in an apartment building at midnight. The sofa is uncomfortable, impossible to sleep on, and so he just lies there and waits for the knock on the door from an angry neighbor, not daring to put the TV on even the quietest setting in case Kurt decides he can hear that, too.

There isn’t a knock, despite Kurt seeming to just get louder, and by three Blaine has come to the conclusion that their neighbors are either heavy sleepers or incredibly sympathetic. Either way, he’s going to take them a batch of homemade muffins by way of apology. It’s only right.

By five, Kurt has been quiet for too long, and Blaine slowly gets up and practically tiptoes into the bedroom to check on him. He’s slumped over on the desk, head in his arms, surrounded by open books and notes scrawled across pieces of paper, so far from Kurt’s usual neat handwriting. His hair is free of product and flopping across his face, and Blaine had no idea just how long it’d gotten. His eyes are wide open and his whole body is trembling just slightly from the caffeine.

“Kurt?” Blaine asks cautiously, and Kurt’s hand twitches up behind his head in response. “You okay?”

“Gonna fail,” Kurt mumbles into his elbow. “Gonna have to drop out and be a barista for the rest of my life and you’ll leave me and I’ll be alone and I don’t want to see another drop of coffee as long as I live, I’m quitting my job tomorrow, and then we won’t be able to make rent and you’ll definitely leave me and I’ll have to move back to Lima and it’s all because of the exam I’m going to fail in three hours.”

“Or,” Blaine says softly, reaching out to wrap his steady fingers around Kurt’s shaking ones. “You could drink some water, try and flush some of the caffeine out of your system, and let me make you breakfast before you go and do your best on the evil final of doom.”

Kurt nods slowly, smiling just a tiny bit at Blaine’s deep, pretend superhero voice describing his exam, and carefully pushes himself up until he’s standing, then shuffles into the en suite to pour glass after glass of water into his mouth. Blaine watches affectionately from the doorway until Kurt needs to pee from the sudden hydration, then leaves him to it and begins preparing breakfast in the small yet over-equipped kitchen. He’s slicing a banana into a bowl of bran flakes when he feels shaky arms wrap around his waist and the soft, light scratch of the stubble he didn’t think existed until this week against his cheek.

“Thank you,” Kurt says into Blaine’s ear, and Blaine cranes his neck to turn and kiss the corner of Kurt’s mouth. He finishes chopping the banana and pulls out of Kurt’s grip, turning around to give him the bowl before thinking better of it and putting it straight on the table.

“You’re welcome,” Blaine says as Kurt sits down. He stirs his cereal a few times so the banana slices are mixed in properly, the way he likes it, but with his shaky caffeine hands and stubborn, focused frown, it looks like the first time he’s ever stirred anything. Kurt’s hair is still flat and floppy, a little mussed where he’s run his fingers through it, and he’s been wearing his old, grey Dalton sweatpants and too-tight McKinley Phys. Ed. t shirt as pajamas for several straight days and nights. They’re stained with split coffee and food dropped while he was concentrating on something other than putting food in his mouth, and Blaine can’t remember if it’s been three days or four since he was aware of Kurt showering or even brushing his teeth, and he suddenly feels a pang of guilt.

“I’m sorry I’ve been a crappy boyfriend,” he says, sliding into the chair beside Kurt and pressing a kiss to his temple.

“Huh?” Kurt grunts through a mouthful of cereal, and Blaine can’t help but smile before returning to serious mode.

“You’ve been so stressed and I’ve been no help, I’ve just been… breathing too loudly and probably exuding some completely unintentional but smug ‘I’ve finished finals and you haven’t’ aura and making you more stressed and I’m sorry.”

Kurt swallows his mouthful hard and sets down his spoon so he can cup Blaine’s cheek with his hand. Blaine can feel him getting slightly less jittery, and is quietly proud that his water and breakfast plan might have actually worked.

“You haven’t been a crappy boyfriend. I’ve been a crappy boyfriend. Who kicks someone out of a room for breathing? Especially breathing they can’t even hear.”

“I knew it!” Blaine exclaims, unable to fight a grin breaking across his face. Kurt laughs and ducks his head, hiding his own smile. “Okay. So we’ve both been crappy boyfriends?”

“Maybe a little,” Kurt admits. “But it’ll be better again after this week.”

Blaine nods and leans in to kiss Kurt lightly, before Kurt picks his spoon up again and scoops the last banana slice with the dregs of the milk into his mouth.

“I need to shower,” Kurt says once he’s finished eating, pinching his dirty shirt and pulling it away from his body before letting it spring back.

“Shower. Make yourself feel more human. Then I’ll quiz you until you have to leave.”

Kurt smiles and stands up, moving to pick the bowl up to wash it, but Blaine grabs it first. Kurt smiles and turns around to head back to the bathroom.

“Oh, and Kurt?” Blaine says, and Kurt spins around. “If you do fail, I promise I won’t leave you.”


End file.
